Carton with pull-out handle



March 22, 1955 p sTlEVE 2,704,617

CARTON WITH PULL-OUT HANDLE Filed Sept. 22, 1952 25 m l #11 26 742% ff 2 IN V EN TOR. PAUL H TIEYE.

5 BY 9Q fTa-4- II'E-E- W United States Patent CARTON WITH PULL-OUT HANDLE Paul H. Stieve, Monroe, Mich., assignor to Consolidated Paper Company, Monroe, Mich., a corporation of Michigan Application September 22, 1952, Serial No. 310,803

1 Claim. (Cl. 220-105) This invention relates to a carton with a pull-out or pull-up handle. More particularly it deals with boxes or cartons with a handle which may be extended from and retracted into the box or carton, depending upon whether the box or carton is to be carried or stacked. Such cartons for example may be made of carton board, corrugated fiber board, or the like and may be used for beverage bottle containers and carriers.

It is an object of this invention to produce a simple, efiicient, effective and economic carton with a pull-out or pull-up handle that may be compactly stored and easily carried.

Another object is to produce such a carton or box with partitions in which the retractable handle is part of one of the partitions.

Another object is to produce such a carton which may be reused and may be made of one piece of sheet material, except for the partition pieces.

Another object is to produce such a carton in which its retractable handle may be held in any position.

Another object is to produce such a carton which prevents the cover or lid from opening when the retractable handle is in its extended or in carrying position.

Generally speaking, the box or carton of this invention is a rectangular parallelepiped with side, end, top and bottom walls or panels. The top is provided with overlapping inner and outer panels having aligned slots through which a pull-up handle may extend. The outer top panel may have a pair of abutting bendable tabs bridging the slot for gripping the handle when it is pulled through the slot. These tabs may be bent apart for exposing the handle when it is retracted so it may be pulled into its extended or carton carrying position. The pull-up handle may be connected integrally with a vertically slidable partition, the ends of which partition may abut against the inner top panel beyond the ends of the slots. The handle portion may be formed from a flap which may be bent outwardly at a finger or hand hold opening.

If desired, the slidable pull-out handle and partition member may also be provided with cross partitions for dividing the inside of the carton or box into separate compartments, such as for separating beverage containers or bottles. When the box or carton is to be opened, the handle is pushed through the slots into the box and the overlapping top panels may then be raised.

The box or carton may be made of a sheet material such as container board or corrugated fiber board and the box itself may be made of one continuous blank bent to form the sides, top, bottom, ends and connecting and reinforcing flaps. The handle and central partition member, however, may be formed of a separate piece of material and the partitions which may be connected with it may be anchored or wedged into slots provided in the handle carrying partition so as to form a unitary handle and partition assembly.

The above mentioned and other features and objects of this invention and the manner of obtaining them are given more specific disclosure in the following description of an embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure l is a perspective view with parts broken away of an embodiment of the invention adapted for carrying twelve beverage bottles, with the pull-out handle in its extended or carton carrying position;

Figure 2 is a vertical section taken along line II-II of Fig. 1 showing the pull-out handle in full lines in its retracted position, and in dotted lines in its extended or carton carrying position;

Figure 3 is a reduced scale plan view of a single sheet blank which may be employed for making the carton of Figs. 1 and 2;

Figure 4 is a view of a pull-out handle and major partition blank which may be employed in cooperation with the blank of Fig. 3 to form a box as shown in Figs. 1 and 2; and

Figure 5 is a view of one of a plurality of minor partition blanks which may be employed as cross partitions for the major partition blank of Figure 4.

Referring to Figure 3, the one piece blank of corrugated fiber board from which the carton or box of this invention may be formed, comprises an inner top panel 1, a major side wall 2, an outer bottom panel 3, one end wall 4 between side wall 2 and the other opposite major side wall 5, an outer top panel 6, an inner bottom panel 7, and the other end wall 8 at the opposite edge of side wall 2. The outer edge of the end wall 8 may be provided with edge flap 9 which may be assembled to the opposite edge of the blank along the edge of the other major side wall 5, such as by staples 10 (see Figs. 1 and 2). The end walls 4 and 8 may each be provided with bottom flaps or extensions 11 which ride over the top of the inner bottom panel 7, and also top flaps or extensions 12, which reinforce and ride against the lower side ends of the inner top panel 1.

The end walls 4 and 8 and side walls 2 and 5 of the carton blank are defined from the top and bottom flaps 12, 11 and panels 1, 6, 3, 7 by scorings 13 and 14 respectively, and the division between the side and end walls 2, 5, 4 and 8 and flap 9 by scoring 15 and 16. The other divisions of the portions of the blank, namely, between the panels 1, 6, 3, 7 and flaps 11, 12 are Cuts through the blank.

Along part of the top scoring 14 between the side wall 2 and the top inner panel 1, may be provided a narrow slot 17 into which a tongue or tuck-in tab 19 attached to the outer edge of the outer top panel 6, may be inserted for anchoring and maintaining the top panels 1 and 6 in their closed position when the pull out handle 27 of the carton is not extended.

Longitudinally along the center of the inner top panel 1 there is provided a pair of aligned slots 20 having a central enlarged or cut out portion 21. Similarly along the center of the outer top panel 6 there is another pair of aligned slots 22 having a pair of bendable tabs 23 between them, the outer ends of which tabs extend into abutment with each other (see Fig. 3). When the box is assembled and its top is closed, the two pairs of slots 20 and 22 are in register with each other (Fig. 2) and the cut out portion 21 provides an opening for the bendmg of the tabs 23 inwardly when the fingers of the carrier to be of the carton push against them to grasp the top edge of the pull-out handle which then can be pulled out through the aligned slots 20 and 22.

Inside the carton and vertically aligned with the overlappmg slots 20 and 22 may be provided a major partition 24, the sheet blank for which is shown in Fig. 4. The lower end of this partition 24 may be provided with slot s 25 WhiCh extend into friction engaging slits for positioning and holding the transverse minor partitions 26, a blank for one of which is shown in Fig. 5. The handle extension 27 on the major partition 24 may be of double thickness of sheet material and be folded along a score line 28, which fold forms the top outer edge 28 of the handle when assembled as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The handle itself may be provided with a pair of bendable tabs 29 which may be bent out of the plane of the handle-partition member to provide an apertlre for the fingers or hand of the carrier (Figs. 1 an 2).

When the container or box has been folded together but before its top is closed, the panels 1, 6 and flaps 12 extend outwardly in line with the sides and ends. The end flaps 12 may be provided with slots 30 which align with the ends of the slots 20 and 22. Beverage containers, such as bottles 31, may be placed into the twelve separate partitions formed in two rows of six on each side of the major central partition 24 by the minor partitions 26. All of the partitions 24 and 26 rest on the bottom of the inside of the container and the pull-up handle portion 27 on the partition 24 does not extend beyond the top of the carton. When the carton is to be closed flaps 12 are first folded inwardly, the inner top panel 1 is folded over them and then the outer top panel 6 is folded over the top of the panel 1. Tuck-in tab 19 is then frictionally inserted into the slot 17 to hold the top of the carton closed, as shown in full lines in Fig. 2. Cartons thus closed may be easily stacked for shipping and/or storage since no handles extend beyond their outer surface to require additional space.

When the pull-out handle 27 in the container is to be employed by a carrier, the carrier pushes the tabs 23 in the outer top panel wall 6 inwardly through opening 21 and grabs the upper edge 28 of the pull-out handle and pulls it out of the container into the position shown in Fig. 1. In this position the abutting tabs 23 abut against the opposite edges of the pull-out handle and keep it from sliding back into the carton or maintain it in its extended position as shown in Fig. 1. The handle carrying aperture may then be opened by pushing out the tabs 29 as shown in Fig. 1 so that the whole container may be readily portable or carried by a person. The pull-out handle is restrained from pulling further out than the distance shown in Fig. 1 by the shoulders 32 provided at the edge of the pull-out handle portion along the top of the major partition 24, which shoulders 32 abut against inner sides of the flaps 12 beyond the ends of the slots 20, 22 and 30.

The top panels 1 and 6 and flaps 12 are prevented from being opened by a pull on the handle because of the narrowness of the slots 20 and 22 which prevents relative movement between the panels 1 and 6 by fitting closely against the two sides of the double thickness handle 27 as long as the pull-out handle extends through said slots.

When the box is assembled the outer lower edge of the container which holds the outer flap 7 in position may be held by a reinforcing strip 33 which may be glued into the position shown in Figs. 1 and 2 to seal the bottom panel 3 to the lower edge of major side wall 5 and maintain the bottom of the carton closed.

The simple construction of this particular type of container enables it to be reused by bending the flaps 29 back flush with the sides of the handle portion 27 and pushing the handle 27 into the carton to the full line position shown in Fig. 2, so that the top panel 6 may have its tuck-in tab 19 pulled from the slot 17 and then the top panels 6 and 1 and flaps 12 opened for access to the bottles 31. After the bottles have been removed, the empty bottles may be placed again in the container, the container closed, the handle pulled out, and the whole package returned for minimizing breakage of the containers and for obtaining credit for the empty bottles 31 and/or carton of this invention, if desired.

While there is described above the principles of this invention in connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of this invention.

What is claimed and it is desired to secure by Letters Patent is:

A carton of sheet material having a top wall formed of overlapping inner and outer panels and a pull-up handle comprising: elongated registering slots in both said panels extending longitudinally thereof and terminating short of the ends thereof, the slot in the inner panel having a widened medial portion, the slot in the outer panel having bendable tabs registering with said widened portion, a vertical partition inside said carton, a handle extension on said partition extendable through said slots, said bendable tabs extending from opposite sides of said outer panel slot across said slot with their free ends abutting each other, said free ends being bendable through said widened medial portion to permit access to said handle extension when inside said carton, and said tabs being bendably separable for frictionally engaging the sides of said handle extension when said handle extension extends through said slot.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,093,412 Hess Apr. 14, 1914 1,574,520 Singer Feb. 23, 1926 1,949,986 Whalley Mar. 6, 1934 2,133,590 Stopper Oct. 18, 1938 2,284,989 Rue June 2, 1942 2,365,333 Cunningham Dec. 19, 1944 2,413,315 Darragh et a1 Dec. 31, 1946 2,591,593 Nolan Apr. 1, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 507,958 Great Britain June 23, 1939 462,375 Canada Jan. 10, 1950 667,652 Great Britain Mar. 5, 19 52 

